Saturday, April 22, 2017

Earth Day Birthday

It was a beautiful day to celebrate Earth Day. Luckily for me, it was also a day to celebrate my delightful daughter's birthday. Guess where she chose to host her party? Why her favorite segment of the Ice Age Trail of course: Monches.

Being a volunteer Tyke Hike coordinator, I love taking kids out on the trail. However, this having a birthday twist, my wife and I had extra fun planning the day. It was amazing to have a mixed group of over thirty friends, family, neighbors, and classmates join us for this event.

I planned the hike with the theme "Embry's Favorites." As we hiked, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and nature's playground to enjoy some fallen trees and stumps in one of Embry's favorite activities, natural play.

We also stopped to take a break and listen to one of her favorite books, The Book With No Pictures, by BJ Novak.

Hard to see here, but before the guests arrived, I hid plastic eggs on both sides of the trail filled with two of Embry's favorite things. One set of eggs had fun animal stickers and the other side had candy.

After snacking, it was back to natural play, and boy, did the kids play. 😋

We wrapped up the hike with some of Embry's favorite snacks. Pretzels, veggies, fruit, juice, granola bars, and dirt cake. We opened a few presents, handed out some gift bags, and cleaned up, even picking up some extra garbage to honor Earth Day.